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Boulder's Kelsey Phinney competing at skiing nationals

Freshman Nordic racer making a name for herself in Middlebury

By Sarah Kuta kuta@coloradodaily.com

Posted:
03/06/2013 05:57:36 PM MST

Updated:
03/06/2013 05:59:13 PM MST

Boulder High graduate Kelsey Phinney races at the Middlebury Carnival in February. Phinney, a Middlebury freshman, will compete at the NCAA Skiing Championships.
(Courtesy photo/Flying Point Photography/Steve Fuller)

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Boulder High grad Miles Havlick will also compete at the NCAA skiing championships for the University of Utah. More info and results: NCAA.com

W hile many in Boulder will watch to see how the University of Colorado-Boulder ski team fares this week at the NCAA Championships, a small cheering section from Boulder will be rooting for the championship's host school, Middlebury College.

Kelsey Phinney, a Boulder High graduate and Middlebury freshman, will compete for national titles in the 5K classic on Thursday and 15K freestyle race on Saturday. Younger sister of local cycling phenom Taylor Phinney, Kelsey was the only Middlebury freshman to qualify for the championships.

Her mom, Olympic cyclist and speed skater Connie Carpenter-Phinney, has made the trip to Vermont to cheer for the Panthers. Older brother Taylor and dad Davis Phinney can't make it, Kelsey said, because of their hectic schedules.

Kelsey, a Nordic specialist, got her first taste of the sport in seventh grade. She went to watch a friend's cross-country ski race and saw how the skiers pushed themselves -- hard.

"I saw everyone basically hurting themselves to the point of falling across the finish line, so I thought it would be fun to try," she said, laughing. "I joined Boulder Nordic Junior Racing team in middle school and sort of fell in love with it, and really found racing was a lot of fun, I guess in a masochistic way."

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Last March, Kelsey finished eighth at Nordic junior nationals. Then came high school graduation and the tough decision of where to spend the next four years.

Kelsey, now 18, knew she wanted to move east for the strong Nordic skiing culture, she said, but the Middlebury campus visit was what sold her on the 2,500-student private liberal arts school. Her introduction to the ski team on the visit was the deciding factor, she said.

Middlebury Nordic ski coach Andrew Gardner described her as a "brilliant" athlete, but added that he's tried not to put any pressure on Kelsey to do well in the championship races.

"It's uncommon for a first-year skier to go to NCAAs and do exceptionally," Gardner said. "Just making it is doing exceptionally well. (My goals) are not anything other than for her to experience the NCAAs for the first time."

Gardner said he's been impressed with how Kelsey has balanced skiing with schoolwork, calling her "academically driven." She hasn't declared a major yet, but Kelsey said she's planning to study neuroscience and one day hopes to become a doctor. Her dad was diagnosed in 2000 with Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative brain disorder, so Kelsey was exposed to neuroscience growing up.

With such an impressively athletic family, Gardner said he's watched as Kelsey has slowly made a name for herself in skiing through hours of practice and steady improvement.

"Coming from a family like Kelsey comes from comes with its challenges," he said. "What she's done is pretty remarkable because it would have been easy for her to be in the shadow of her family, and she's not. She's been capable of maintaining her own scene."

To Kelsey, she's just skiing and not at all worried about setting herself apart from her parents and brother.

Having successful family members gave her good exposure to the media, fame and an athletic lifestyle, she said. As far as living in her brother's shadow, Kelsey laughs off the suggestion.

"I mean, he's a tall person so I guess..." she said, jokingly.

She went on to add that she considers Taylor her best friend, someone she looks up to and one of her biggest supporters. When she found out she'd qualified for NCAAs, she got some "Twitter love" from all of Taylor's fans, too.

"I'm just really excited," she said. "I had NCAAs in the back of my mind coming into the season as a goal, but I knew it was going to be tough. I'm just excited to be going."

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